


No Day But Today

by HarperGray



Category: Rent - Larson
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-09-07
Updated: 2006-09-07
Packaged: 2018-05-01 11:28:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5204081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarperGray/pseuds/HarperGray
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alison decides she's tired of being invisible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Day But Today

It was night, and once again, he was off somewhere, doing his own thing. Sometimes she thought it would kill him to spend some uninterrupted time at home, with her. She curled up on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her, pretending to be absorbed in the novel propped open on her lap. When the phone rang, she contemplated not answering it. She hated to seem too available, as though she had nothing better to do than sit around and wait for the damn phone to ring. Then again, who was she kidding? She reached for the phone.

“Hello?” she said, hoping she sounded cheerful and unconcerned.

“Alison, baby, you sound sad.”

Damn.

“No, just a bit tired maybe, but-”

“I can’t believe those two, after everything I’ve done.”

And so it went. In the back of her mind lingered the unsettling belief that he had only married her for her money. Had she been amazingly naïve to ever think otherwise? Still holding the phone, she let him continue talking while she walked over to stand in front of a mirror.

Long blonde hair, pale blue eyes, a slim figure she fought tooth and nail to maintain……plus the tantalizing prospect of her father’s money. What man wouldn’t have been interested? She supposed her lot in life was to be similar to that of her mother’s: a silent bride, invisible but for those times when her husband desired to show her off. Her mother had managed to seem happy, so why couldn’t she? She knew women who ran their own successful businesses, or became doctors and saved lives, and here she was, not even able to succeed at being a trophy wife. Well, the hell with it then. With all of it. The pretentious, pathetic passive existence. She would turn her back on all of it and finally find out just who she was. No longer Alison Grey, and soon no longer Mrs. Benjamin Coffin III (what kind of last name is Coffin, anyway?). She would just be Alison, and fuck anyone who didn’t think that was good enough.

She realized that Benny had hung up somewhere during this mental monologue, so she replaced the phone on the side table. A hopeful smile brought her sad face to life as she walked into the bathroom, picking up a sharp pair of scissors she found in the medicine cabinet. Meeting her own eyes in the mirror, and marveling at the new determination there, she started cutting off her long, carefully-maintained hair to a daringly short length. As the pile of hair on the floor slowly grew, she began to make plans: where she would go, what she would do. And as every minute went by, her heart felt lighter and more free. Why not start living, right now, right this minute? Why wait until tomorrow? From now on, she would not acknowledge the existence of tomorrow, and she would not cry over yesterday. From now on, for Alison, there would be no day but today.


End file.
